Monday, April 28, 2008

Rise and Shine!

Today I made five loaves of bread. Three different kinds. Yes, you heard me right. The first loaf attempted was a Chocolate Babka, a twisted cinnamon-chocolate bread with Streusel. The second, was Chocolate Swirl bread, similar, but a variation of the Cinnamon Raisin bread I had made a few weeks ago. The last type was Cornmeal Rolls, fun!

The first, Babka, was interesting. It seemed more like a vehicle for butter and chocolate than an actual "bread." I divided into three portions, cooked the first two as loaves, and the last, I cut up and threw in muffin tins and made little rolls. Those would have turned out better, but they were on the bottom of the oven the whole time, a bit overdone on the bottom. On the bottom, to give the two real loves a chance to have the streusel brown. After said baking time, sigh, no browning. So I lowered the rack and turned the broiler on HI. Well, I turned my back to tend to the other breads just for a minute and wham! Blackened sugar topping, and lovely mildly-smoking kitchen. I managed to scrape off the black yums and salvaged the loaves.

The second, the chocolate swirl bread turned out divinely!

The thirs, Cornmeal rolls, took about 3 hours to do their first rise. I think maybe this could be shortened by adding more yeast. I plan to try this one as a loaf.

That obviously took ALL day in the kitchen...painting tonight. I'm pooped!

About Me

A chef by happenstance, I fell head over heels when I opened a cafe in '05. I currently look for anything to do with yums. I am now a professional organizer with my own company and a great business partner. I now only do cheffing as a part-time gig on the side.